America's Unique Deaf Stories; Established 1996; 23rd year

2019/03/13

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition – March 13, 2019

— too many sign language machines

we have too many “inventors” claiming to be thefirst to “invent” these sign language machines.An article in the Smithsonian Magazine questionedthe usefulness of these (many) sign languagemachines. The magazine is correct.

— a weakness in FCC’s captioning law

The FCC requires captioned videos on-lineonly if that original program was alreadycaptioned on TV. The loophole is videosthat were never shown in TV. Becauseof lawsuits targeting that loophole,the FCC may (or may not) require thesenon-TV videos to be captioned. Confusing?Yes, and this is why we have attorneysfighting each other in the courts.

— to laugh or to cry at a doctor’s office

DeafDigest editor went to a doctor’s officeto pick up a patient. The receptionist knewthe editor was deaf and told him to go tothe waiting room to wait for the patient.A different employee shouted out a name.No response. She again shouted out thisname and again, no response. The editorsaw it all but assumed it was for adifferent patient. The receptionistthen realized what was happening andcame over to him to go and pick upthat patient. A minor issue, yes, butto laugh or to cry?